This Kidd has a big heart for the city

A strong supporter of Youngstown, Phil Kidd of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative is working to help revitalize the city.

He’s a forceful presence, standing more than 6 feet tall with a walk of calculated determination, a shaved head and a firm handshake, a stare devoid of doubt.

Wearing a pressed white button-up, cuffs sliding past his wrists when his elbows bend. He’s practical, a minimalist, with an idea bigger than himself.

Phil Kidd is Defend Youngstown, or maybe it’s the other way around. He is the voice of a grass-roots, revitalization process determined to shake the rust off the city.

He’s a member of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, the acting vice president of the Mayor’s Community Foundation, formerly the city’s director of downtown events and special projects, a 2008 Leadership of the Mahoning Valley graduate and an active player in everything Youngstown.

But the all-things-Youngstown man was born in Pennsylvania, spending most of his later childhood in the city of Weirton, W.Va., a once-vibrant town pinned between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In the fall of 1998, Alli Tomich loaded her Ford Escort with bed sheets, enough clothes to last a week and her only son, Phil. It was a one-way trip for Kidd, with Youngstown State University at the other end. After they settled his possessions into a cramped dorm room on the sixth floor of Kilcawley Center, Tomich turned to her son.

“There’s just something about Youngstown. It feels like home,” she told him.

“Yeah, mom,” he agreed. “It does.”

Kidd has Youngstown coursing through his veins. The people, the heritage.

“It has the down-to-earth people just like us,” his grandmother Betty Dumbovich explains. “I know, he told me. Hard-working people, that’s the kind of people he likes.”

“That’s why he was attracted to Youngstown,” his grandfather Joseph adds, “because he grew up in that kind of town.”

When Kidd was 10, he stood at his father’s side at a bridge project in Washington, Pa. His father, Robert Kidd, helped organize the project while working for the Washington County Redevelopment Authority. Robert died when Phil was 15.

“He died of an enlarged heart,” Kidd said. “They found him upstairs, face down. When he died, his heart was twice the size of a normal heart.”

He was a large man, with a large heart.

“Between all that is kind of my DNA,” Kidd considers. “Having my father serve in that capacity, having my mother, [a Pennsylvania housing projects auditor], serve in a similar capacity. ... I see where my interests and kind of my evolution to where I got now. It was from all these experiences growing up.

“I’m an advocate,” says Kidd, 30. “I do what I can as an organizer.”

Kidd’s efforts caught the eye of a promising young politician campaigning for mayor.

“I met this guy that people just gravitated toward,” Mayor Jay Williams reflects. Williams found himself wondering “who is this guy and why is he so passionate about Youngstown? ... He’s everywhere.”

On a warm summer night, after an arduous workday, Williams decided to take it easy. He attended a film at the Covelli Centre. The movie ended about 9:30 p.m. Williams recalls leaving, thinking only of going home to get some much-needed sleep. Then he spots Kidd.

“Phil hops on his bike, with a Defend Youngstown T-shirt on, riding off into the darkness, probably to another event,” Williams recalls.

“To me, it was like ... enough! We’re going to recognize all of our challenges, all of our history, all of our baggage, our scars.”

Kidd took to the streets, holding up hope on a piece of weathered, tan cardboard with bold, black lettering reading “Defend Youngstown.”

Every Friday and Saturday night, Kidd stood downtown in the middle of Youngstown’s dormant heart, like a crusader with a passion border-lining lunacy. His plan was simple. “I wanted to get people talking.”

And not the usual talk, either.

In the aftermath of a rash of arsons sweeping through the Wick Park neighborhood last fall, a community meeting took place Nov. 9 at the Wick Park Pavilion.

Tyler Clark, a friend of Kidd’s and founder of Youngstown Renaissance, recalls the event.

Ninety minutes into the meeting, after feeble talk of block watches and wandering investigation leads, Kidd stood up and introduced himself.

“Listen, this is what we want,” Clark remembers him saying, never raising his voice, polite, courteous, articulate, steadily piercing the ineffectual atmosphere. Kidd looked straight into the eyes of council members, community leaders and government officials. “We want you to prioritize the preservation of Wick Park,” he said.

“Everyone turned around to him,” Clark says. “They thanked him.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan remembers first hearing of a guy from out of town, bringing “an appreciation for all the good things he saw” in the Mahoning Valley. Ryan, of Niles, D-17th, picked up a local newspaper and read about Kidd’s campaign, selling Defend Youngstown T-shirts, selling hope.

“I ended up buying a bunch of shirts off him,” Ryan says. “I had a period where I was wearing Defend Youngstown T-shirts every day.”

“It’s all heart,” he explains. Phil is very “targeted and smart. You gotta have that person.”

Kidd wakes up at 7:30. On any given day, 30 to 40 e-mails are waiting for him in his in-box when he arrives at the MVOC. He works right through lunch, planning projects or events for that evening.

He almost always attends a neighborhood meeting before arriving back at the office around 9 p.m. where he spends the next three hours blanketing his Defend Youngstown Facebook page with the accomplishments of the Valley, holding up the city like a first-born child. At midnight, he calls it a day.

His Saturday mornings are ritually interjected by a cup of coffee at the Golden Dawn just off Wick Avenue — right in the old neighborhood. At the same table every week, he surrounds himself with a copy of The Vindicator, The Business Journal, his laptop, the Week Magazine and a pile of policies and reports on upcoming community-development projects.

He has hopes of amending his routine someday. “I see myself at a high school football game when I’m 50,” he ponders.

He doesn’t have any children yet, but maybe he’ll be watching his son play on that field, under the lights, with his family and friends — right in the old neighborhood.

“I have dreams to live in Youngstown until they incinerate me and spread my ashes over the Mahoning River,” he exclaims.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU Radio and The Vindicator.

Hey 'USA1', ACORN is defunct. No longer in existence. This of course happened before a Congressional Committe and federal investigatiors found ACORN broke no laws and did no wrong. If you think ACORN had anything to do with the housing collapse, I've got some swampland down in south GA I'd like to show you.

Funny how it takes a Kidd from WV to care enough about YTown to actually get off his butt and do something about it. And, all the naysaying nabobs of negativity (USA1) can say about it is 'MVOC is ACORN!'. With people like this in the Valley, it's no wonder it's fallen to pieces.

Phil Kidd has a heart of gold and is using that to help the city. I love going down to the northside farmer's market and enjoying Wick Park. That is largely in part to Phil Kidd. This city owes you a big thanks Phil. Thank you for caring enough about it to do something.

usa1 please go away. You serve no purpose whatsoever on this site. You've NEVER posted something that was insightful. No one ever read one of your posts and went "wow that makes sense" Just stop, you're an awful, terrible human being.

And please get a new handle. You don't deserve to have USA in your title. You represent all that is wrong with my Country.

Also, as my name indicates I do quite a bit of watching.....and digging. My sources are close to confirming USA1's identity. When it is confirmed I will expose him to the VINDY.COM audience and the rest of the Valley.

“I ended up buying a bunch of shirts off him,” Ryan says. “I had a period where I was wearing Defend Youngstown T-shirts every day.” - Then Nancy yelled at me and made me give them to the homeless in D.C.

Thank you, Phil. He's a good guy doing great work. Become a part of change by concentrating on the positive and LOL at those who persist in negativity. This is our home. Defend it, love it, help it grow or else get out of town!

I like you, Kidd! You've got spunk! (to paraphrase Lou Grant!!) Seriously, you've got to admire what this young man is doing for our community! I heard him speak at YSU and was very impressed; his passion is infectious. Glad to see the vast majority of people posting on this story are so positive...ignore the negative! "People who project negativity typically have low self-esteem. They feel badly about themselves, and their negativity is simply a reflection of those feelings." --HENDRIE WEISINGER, The Power of Positive Criticism

I was wondering how USA1 was going to find something negative to say here, since that is all that is spewed from him, negativity. Figures the best he could do is try to compare MVOC to ACORN. A TEA party organizer who is upset that Americans paid less taxes last year than the previous administrations term and he is still not satisfied.

You are so self-involved you can't even read others posts correctly, Ohiowatcher actually said she agrees with you having the right to your own opinion, as does everyone. Are you really intimidated by saying they might know who you are? Do you prefer to work anonymously in shadows? If you are proud of yourself, your views and your Tea Party, why don't you just tell everyone who you are? Who really cares?

Thank You Phil for your compassion and dedication to your adopted city. You make us all a little bit prouder of Youngstown.

This is the only way the City of Youngstown is going to be saved. Good people doing good work for the good of the city. I wish him luck. I have always said that, even though I live in Canfield, I wouldn't object to some of my taxes being earmarked for Youngstown City infrastructure improvements IF I knew it would get to the proper people. Unfortunately, when you see the make-up of city council, you start to think otherwise. I hope Phil succeeds.

We all need to jump aboard the bandwagon and Defend Youngstown. There is a solid fountadion laid out by Phil, and with the collaboration of our community, we can start to build upwards and begin to revitalize Youngstown and it's surrounding neighbors. Anyone know where we can start to volunteer?

To volunteer, you can join the "Defend Youngstown" group on Facebook. Phil sends out a weekly list of volunteer opportunities in the city. If you're not into Facebook then I'm sure he wouldn't mind adding you to his email mailing list if you send him a message via the Defend Youngstown website.

To Phil, Thanks for being an inspiration! You make us all want to be better and do more!

"Ytown is known as "Little Chicago"? Really? Even if that was true.. it's not a distinction to back away from."

Yes Youngstown was called "Little Chicago" back in the day and indeed the distinction was something to back away from. It was comparing the mafia control and violent mob war bloodshed between the two cities. Watch Boom Boom's documentary Youngstown Still Standing ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1240548/ ) to get the full scoop.

Having said that, I in no way agree with USA1's post. I'm just trying to school you on Ytown's history. It was also called MurderTown, Ohio & Crimetown, USA back then - 1960's by Saturday Evening Post & Argosy magazines.

Bellamy, would you support what Phil Kidd is doing more if he started lifting weights and taking steroids? To say that a guy needs to be Hulk Hogan to get things accomplished is really the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

As for USA1, "I, like 10s of millions of other Americans are demanding less government, lower taxes, secure borders and more individual freedom for everyone."

Firstly, I'd like to point out to you that there are 300Million people in this country, you tea partiers are in the very small minority. Most people understand that government is the best way to get BIG things done. Government, not the free market went to the moon. Government, not the free market, took the initiative to settle the west. Government can do good things, but what Phil Kidd is doing has nothing to do with government, it's a group of regular people, like the tea party, doing something good for our community. The difference between MVOC and the Tea Party is that MVOC is actually trying to make things better whereas the Tea Party is a group of pessimistic, old people who are angry that the president is black. Move to the South, you'd fit in well there, we don't need your anger and hatred here.

usa0 pro-teabagger,typical response from the ignorant right.Take a positive article about an individual like Kidd and write about ACORN. Like others on here wrote, ACORN has been cleared of all the serious charges that your scumbag teabag buddies tried to set them up with.You teabaggers can`t stand any organization that registers people to vote that you baggers don`t really consider the real Amurricans.Don`t worry,the unions will pick up the slack for the absence of ACORN. By the way,if you`re reading this Phil,pay no attention to usa0 pro-teabagger.He`s an anomaly in the field of rationality.lol.....Good job Phil.

USA1...no offense, but I've never found any of your comments interesting, relevant, or worthwhile. You are completely predictable and show absolutely no ability to think independently or critically. You have never written positively about anything in our community. You're what Katherine Hepburn called Henry Fonda in "On Golden Pond"...an old poop. And for the record, I admire Phil Kidd. You'd be wise to channel some of his positive energy.

Ya..lets badmouth Phil Kidd the guy who is trying to help the city. And the people who badmouth him..there is trully no help for you or your lives. I think its pathetic that someone is trying to help out the city..wether it takes a day or 20 years and you guys still talk garbage. Why such a huge stick up all your as%ho$es? I honestly hope all you guys that want nothing good to happen to youngstown all get on the same bu that plunges off the side of a cliff....that would make me happy...then of course there would be alot less posts.

You make so many faulty assumptions, my friend! Foolish, foolish old man....don't you know what they say about making assumptions...how it makes an A*S*S* out of you? I think I'll sneak up at you at your next klan rally..oops, I mean tea party! And...go Phil! You are doing a great job...that's the bottom line to this story.

My hometown, alas, is Canfield. Doesn't mean I live there now. (And you're not my friend, either...but it still doesn't mean I might sneak up behind you at your next rally and say "BOO!!) But I do agree with you on one thing, and that's that we should stop feeding the trolls on government dole. Would you include yourself in that being that you receive a monthly social security check? If you feel guilty that you are living off the government, I challenge you to donate July's check to help the refugees in Haiti. Go ahead...make the world a better place...I dare you!! Here's the web address: http://www.clintonbushhaitifund.org/ And...Phil Kidd is doing great things for Youngstown!! Go Phil!!

By the way, USA1...I'd think you'd have a bit more respect for Phil Kidd as he previously served in the military. A TRUE patriot, that Kidd!! For me, personally, Phil Kidd represents the best the USA. We should be proud he calls Youngstown home!! http://www.cityofyoungstownoh.com/abo... (Sorry, Vindi to post from the competition, but your article never mentioned his Army service.)

USA1...it's fun to get you all worked up and out of control. It confirms my suspicions that you are one crazy, old loon. By the way, I've probably paid more taxes in my life than you ever have, and I will continue to do so for the next decade or so. Phil Kidd deserves kudos for his efforts, not your pathetic and paranoid denigration. You hate Obama so much you paint all community organizers with the same brush. Maybe you're just jealous of Phil's youthful vitality, energy and good press. What good have YOU done with your life? Community service work? Charity? You don't seem to want to answer those questions because I think you sit at home at your computer all day writing nasty, snarky comments. Get out in the real world and help somebody for goodness sake! When was the last time you expressed gratitude to someone on this board for something good they had done? NEVER!! The Vindi should ban you and your ilk for life. You contribute nothing to this forum, and likely nothing to society except bilious negativity.

USA1---you are not a rational being. You want secure borders with less govt. and lower taxes? How is that supposed to happen? Secure borders, whether you build them or patrol them, requires hiring more people. More people, more payroll, more taxes. Admit it----you are just one of those people who likes to complain more than encourage! Get a clue!

Until the streets of Youngstown are safe for everyone to walk at anytime of day, every community leader in this town is a total failure. You people have very low expectations in this life. "Gee, Youngstown isn't so bad. If I barricade myself into my home I can feel pretty secure in the knowledge that it won't get invaded. And if it does happen, maybe the cops will actually think about doing something. There's something positive to hang my hat on."

I recently saw that 10,000 Chinese took to the streets of Paris to protest violence against their community. Those people are more American than any of you puppets who settle for this Kidd lightweight will ever be.

Read the article again and ask yourself if there's any proof in it that he has done jack squat that could be considered substantive. It's all fluff. Having friends in the local press who are willing to polish your turds does not make you a success, it just means you're a little slick.

Yes, USA1, it is your right under the US Constitution to speak freely. It is also your right to be paranoid, ill-informed, negative, foolish, and hypocritical. By the way, why won't you answer me when I ask what kind of community service you perform in order to make our community a better place in which to live?

Thank you USA1. You have finally come clean about the type of person you really are. I had suspected it all along. You don't believe in helping your community become a better place. You don't give a crap about your fellow Americans. You've admitted it for all to see. In my opinion, you are the WORST kind of American citizen. You are one dimensional...A USELESS IDIOT. Our country was founded and grew great by the Phil Kidds of the world. How very, very sad you can't appreciate that.

I can't imagine what else there is to say to you anymore USA1. You know everything!! When I woke up this morning, the things I loved most about this country still remain. We can go to church...or not believe at all! A black man (or a half black man) can still be president over all of us...so for me, it's a good day. I will continue to believe in the possible and the positive, while you can sit and spin in your negativity. Like I stated previously, the Phil Kidds who make positive changes in our community are to be applauded, while the hysterical harpies such as yourself are to be ignored.And ignored you shall be!!!!

I get really tired of conservabots making the claim that our founding fathers were christians, the fact is most of them weren't. That's why they fought against the repression of the Church of England being forced upon them like conservatives want to do with their religion today. USA1 read a history book, you're just a greedy, uneducated useless idiot like Candy said. Here's to hoping you fall in the Mahoning River and contract cancer from all of the chemicals dumped in there thanks to small government and no regulation of the free market.

usa0 pro-teabagger,even though I think you are a first class wingnut, I have refrained from calling you derogatory names but since you have labeled me a fool and an idiot,the gloves are off.First of all you are a lying hypocrite.You worked at GM from 1983-2006 and your wages and benefits were negotiated by the UAW,which you call evil. In a previous post months ago,I asked you why you didn`t become a Beck objector if you hated the union so much and you lied and said you were a Beck objector.FALSE.I know the names of the Beck objectors from Local 1112 and you`re not one of them.Nice try fool.So let`s get this straight,you enjoyed all the benefits that the union negotiated and workers died for back in the 20`s and 30`s but you never had the cojones to object publicy.You never attended a union meeting and voiced your right wing views,and don`t say you wouldn`t have been able to speak.Another lie.You never wrote a letter to the paper expressing your love for Ronnie Reagan or the Bushs`and lambasting the union.

Noone that is active politically buys your BS that you are not an active Republican.You teabaggers(I LOVE THAT WORD) and the GOP are tied at your twisted,warped minds which is fine with me because you will pull the Republicans down into the teabagger cesspool with you. The rational Repubs are like you,they don`t have the guts either to reveal what they really think about you teabaggers.

Someone like Phil Kidd and yourself are not even comparable.You are a hater of everything that doesn`t jibe with your asinine right wing views.You want the nation to fail just for your stupid political teabagging beliefs.You spout your asinine talk about less government but you voted for all the previous Republican presidents that INCREASED the size of government and RAISED taxes several times.Not a peep from you idiot teabaggers then,why? Because everything you bitch and whine about is okay when a REPUBLICAN is doing it.If your gal Palin gets in and increases government or raises taxes you won`t say a word you lying,hypocritical, fool. I`m surprised you even live on a street with the word Indian in it because you likely hate them too right?

It`s telling that the majority of people on vindy.com think you are a deranged,likely dangerous idealogue.We can`t all be wrong can we teabagger King?

Useless1....You asked "Since when does an American have to join a union to be hired by a corporation?"

The answer is when you apply for a job with a corporation and that corporation requires you too be a union member for the job YOU applied for.

You constantly point out that less than 8% of private labor is union. You are the one who chose a job in that 8%. You weren't forced. If you didn't want a union job you should have applied for a job in the other 92% of the work force.

If you feel you were subjected to being overpaid why didn't you send a personal check back to GM for the overpayment?

As far as that lie about the 130 pound guy beat and kicked by six thugs, I have posted that video numerous times and at no time is that guy punched or kicked and he can be seen walking around and talking with people and he doesn't have a scratch on him.

Have you ever noticed that your main talking points are the lie about that beating, Obama's birth certificate, the size of your teabagger jamborees and socialism even though you cash that government check ever month? You never provide any proof of your delusions and proof of their lies have been posted over and over again.

Your only purpose is showing everyone what the teabaggers are all about and reminding everyone that when they vote republican they vote the same way you do.

Okay, now the next step is providing real proof (not your opinion) as to whether or not these programs are successful. How do these programs work? I don't want to hear the sentimental stories about the alleged Joe Bluecollar getting dropped off at YSU. I don't care what his grandfather did. I want to hear about results. If that makes me negative so be it. In my world that makes me someone who cares about Youngstown and doesn't want to see it get railroaded by yet another opportunist that does nothing but profit while playing to the community's baser instincts.

I want to know why I'm not allowed to walk the streets of my town while feeling safe. I want to know where my taxes are going and what the results are. I want to know why this town attracts so many scumbags who are h--l bent on ruining life for good people. I keep hearing that so and so is on the case, but the only results I see are the new bars and the empty rhetoric that's disseminated by the government and the media.

Deism (pronounced /ˈdiːɪzəm/, us dict: dē′·ĭzm)[1][2] is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion. Many Deists reject the notion that God intervenes in human affairs, for example through miracles and revelations. These views contrast with the dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.

In other words, A Deist acknowledges the idea of a supreme being, but doesn't pander to the hooha of miracles and prophets who say they speak for God. Like, you know, crazy preachers and people who come on here in the Vindy threads saying God this and God that, putting words in the supreme dude's mouth like they're tight or something. Talk on the phone all the time. In the words, Deists say, supreme being sure, but it doesn't care about us. No intervention. A Deist then based their arguments and politics on logic and reason, rather than what came out of a bible. If you read the whole wikipedia entry, it states that they didn't believe holy books, of any religion, were anything but written by human beings and that they weren't divine. So there's a big difference in how a Deist interprets the world and how a general fundamentalist Christian does. A big difference.

Oh let`s not trust Wikipedia usa0-pro-teabagger but let`s believe all of the drivel that you post on here.Gee,that`s a good plan.LOL!Like Cambridge said,get off the union thug BS.Ever see the photos from the Battle of The Overpass? Oh I suppose in your whacked out mind there wasn`t ever any incidents of thuggery by the Corporations right? Unions came into existence because the Corporations were out of control.Before the automakers were organized foremen would tell workers they were going to have sex with their wives or they be fired on the spot.You like that idea usa0 pro-teabagger? When you were working at Lordstown would you have enjoyed having no protection from being fired just because management didn`t like the way you looked,or dressed,or your nationality or the color of your skin or in your particular case mental instability?

I see you didn`t refute the fact you`re a liar and you never were a UAW Beck objector but your teabagging hypocrisy is well known.Since you`re King of the Baggers the readers of this blog should question everything you post for accuracy.It`s common knowledge that truth and reality are foreign concepts as far as you are concerned.Keep on teabagging hypocrite!